ORATION 



DELIVERED BY 



I860 



on. putnfr «&♦ P*K*** 



IN THS 



FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, 



Srooklgit, 



JULY 4th, 1851, 



ON THE OCCASION OF THE 



SEVENTY-SIXTH ANNIVERSARY 



OF OUB 



NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE. 



BROOKLYN : 

i LEES & FOULKES, PRINTERS, COR. FULTON & FRONT STREETS, 

1851, 



ORATION. 



Friends and Fellow Citizens : 

Thete are times and seasons when it is 
proper lor men, in traveling the journey of 
life, to pause and lake a retrospect ol ihe 
past, that they may see whai progress they 
have made, and whether they have devia- 
ted from the right course,— and that they 
may also look forward and take as exten- 
sive a survey of their future route, as their 
own vision and the surrounding objects 
will pprmit. No wise man, indeed, will 
allow himself to neglect these proper oc- 
casions of self-examination in regard to the 
past, and serious contemplation of the fu- 
ture. 

The same may he said of Nations. 
Wi'h them there are recurrences of impor- 
tant epochs, when the people ore emphati- 
cally called upon to pause and reflect ;— 
to contemplate the past and survey the fu- 
ture. Can there be a more fitting occasion 
for such a pause and for such examination 
than upon the arrival of another national 
binhdav 1 This is an annual resting place, 
and it will be we;l for us to seize the op- 
portuniiy it offers to deepen the impression 
and refresh our recollections of the events 
wih which ii is in every mind a-socia ed. 
Circumstances of a momentous character 
that have lately transpired, and are now 
agitaiing the public mind, give additional 
interest to these events, and adl greatly to 
the duty ot the American people, rightly to 
appreciate the blessings which flow from 
them and which have made us a great and 
happy nation. 

It is not my intention to occupy the brief 
time allotted me on the present occasion, 
in recapitulating the history of the Revolu- 
tion. That history is too deeply engraven 
on the tablet of your memories, to render 
any labor of that kind necessary ; but at a 
moment when there are those insane enough 
to lay violent hands upon our blessed 
Union, and attempt to rend it into fragments; 
when there are others, who, if the severance 
of the Union be not their avowed object, 
are yet pursuing a course, which, if per- 
sisted in by anv very large number of peo- 
ple at the North, must inevitably lead to 
that result; it will be well for us to cast 
our eyes back to the past, and see what was 
the condition of the country previous to the 
formation of this glorious Union,— what 
pains, and labor, and anxiety it cost our an- 
cestors to bring it into existence, and then 
take note of the blessings the whole coun- 
try has enjoyed under it, and of which it 
has been the fruitful and still increasing 
source. 

The Colonies which were planted in N. 



America, and which at the commencement 
of that noble struggle which resuked so glo- 
riously to ihem, were commenced at diff-r« 
ent p riods, by different persons, and for 
different purposes. Tbev were distant from 
each other, separated by an unexplored 
wilderness filled wi'h wild beasts, and wild 
men much more to be dreaded than the most 
savage and dangerous animals, and had lit- 
tle communication or sympathy for each 
other. They were neither all of one race 
or language ; nor was there a community 
of interest or religion to bind them together 
as one p-ople. So far from ihis, there ex- 
isted among some of them strong feelings 
of hostility, growing out of those embittered 
religious contests that bad disturbed tha 
peace of England before they had left their 
parent land tor these, then western wilds. 
The Cavalier of Virginia, Maryland and 
South Carolina, saw in the New-Englander 
the same sturdy, bigotted Puritan, who had 
kindled his ire, and against whom he had 
drawn his sword in the conflicts between 
puritanism and prelacy, or protestantism 
and papistry in Old England. And the 
Puritan beheld his old enemies settled upon 
the same continent but at such a distance 
and beyond sueh intervening obstacles, that 
there was little prospect of their ever being 
brought into proximity or association with 
each other. 

Between these, and the staid, cool and 
imperturbable settlers of New Amsterdam, 
there was as little affinity or intercourse, 
and sometimes even hostilities. Such were 
the disjointed members of that confederacy 
which was afterwards formed, and which 
eventually became a well cemented Union. 
And what, let me askyou, fellow citizens, 
were those causes— powerful indeed, they 
must have been — which overcame the re- 
pulsive force of these scattered members, and 
united them in a firm, fraternal national 
band 1— what were the causes which brought 
ihe Cavalier, the Round-head, and the stur- 
dy Dutchman to forget former antipathies, to 
embrace as brothers, and to pledge their 
lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor 
to stand by each other in the deadly conflict 
they had embarked in 1 

It was the love of Liberty; it was a firm 
resolve never to be deprived of the rights of 
freemen. They and their fathers had sought 
these western lands, had sundered ihe •ties 
of kindred and of neighborhood, had left the. 
hearth stones oftheir infancy and manhood, 
had bid adieu to the scenes and cotnoanioti* 
of their youth, and the hallowed graves of 
their ancestors, had braved the dangers of 
a voyage, not then as now, a mere pl«asura 



excursion, but attended with perils and pri- 
rationsof which we liave but a faint idea, 
had landed upon " rockbound," col 1, inhos 
pitable shores ; had encountered cold and 
hunger and sickness in an inclement season, 
wi,ih no covering but the canopy of ihe hea 
vens, and nothing to sustain them but their 
abiding faith in Divine protection and good- 
ness, and their own indomitable energies. 
They were inured to toil, privations, dan- 
gers and hardships; but for a >I these, they 
had the inestimable blessing which they pri- 
zed above everything else on earth, " frte- 
dom to worship God" after their own man- 
ner, and in accordance with the dictates 
ot their own consciences. Here, they 
tasted the sweets of Liberty; here, they were 
subject to no capricious whim of a petty 
tyrant; to no Star-chamber inquisitions, 
arbitrary fines and imprisonments; to no 
brulal and blood thirsty judge, with juries 
ready to do his bidding, and consign inno- 
cent victims by scores to the gallows and 
the giobet. They were too insignificant 
and too tar distant to attract the notice ol 
those whose tender mercies were cruelly, 
and whose protection would have been that 
which the wolf gives to the lamb, or the 
Eastern satrap to the unfortunate and pov- 
erty-stricken inhabitants of his district. 
whom he robs and oppresses. 

Thus, fortunately, for a time left to them- 
selves, our ancestors, as the inhabitants of 
all new countries are. became a hardy, in- 
dustrious, religious, liberty-loving people; 
and they took care that their children should 
be trained up in the way they should go. 
With danger they were familiar, for they 
warred not less with the primeval, inter- 
minable, unbroken forest, than with the 
savage foe with which it was filled, and 
whose hideous yell was but too often the 
first intimation they had of his immediate 
presence, and of the appalling fa.e that 
awaited some portions at .east of their tam- 
ilii s. 

Hut they " increased and multiplied."— 
Industry and enterprise, as they ever 
do, found their rewards. Few fared 
sumptuously, but lew also lacked 
the necessaries of life ; and all, as a 
people, went on increasing in comfort 
and wealth, improving their farms, exten- 
ding their settlements, and enlarging their 
commerce, until their prosperity finally at- 
tracted the attention of the government of the 
mother County, and excited the cupidity of 
unjust ministers of the Crown, and then 
commenced that ever memorable conflict 
between haughty, insolent, and domineer- 
ing power, and the indomitable spirit of 
civil liberty. This contest went on for 
years before hostilities commenced. John 
Adams has said, that the " revolution was 
twenty years old when the war began." The 
steps taken by the British ministry to treat 
the American Colonies as a conquered peo- 
ple, and not as British subjects having all 



the rights of those who dwelt In England, 
were taken cautiously, and, as it were, 
by stealth, but they were watched by jealous 
eyes, sagacious men, and sturdy freemen. 
Nut an inch could they advance unperceiv- 
ed. No disguise, however well assu- 
med—no sophistry however. specious could 
deceive or impose upon those " who knew 
their rights, and knowing, dared maintain." 

The purpose ol the British government, 
that is, to levy a tax upon the colonies 
without their consent,— to tax them unre- 
presented in Parliament, — soon became 
apparent to the more sagacious and 

Ivnx-eyed patriots of that day the 

Franklins, the Adamses, the Henrys, 
and the Randolphs ;— and a com- 
mon danger, and common grievances 
naturally brought about an interchange of 
opinion between the leading men in opposi- 
tion to the objectionable measures, residing 
in different and distatu colonies. Each col- 
ony, or at least several of them, hail their 
separate quarrels with their [loyal Govern- 
ors, in addition to the common complaints 
of the whole against the mini-try, and these 
were by no means calculated to reconcile 
the people to such measures as the S:amp 
Act, the tax upon tea, the Boston Port Bill, 
&c, &c, or to allay the irritation of the 
public mind. 

The acts I have alluded to were not so 
oppressive as they were obj 'dionable in 
iplc. They were subversive of the 
rights ol freemen, which was cause enough 
for resistance to those who well knew the 
cautious and stealthy pace with which arbi- 
trary power advances, and the great pains 
it takes to lull the suspicions of :hose, upon 
whose necks it would bind the shackles of 
tyranny. I: was not the amount they were 
called upon to pay that they objected to, but 
it was the assumption of the power, without 
right, to make them pay anything, however 
trifling. It was tne greai principle which 
is the very basis of civil liberty, for which 
they contended ;— namely, that no freeman 
can be taxed but by himself vr his represen- 
tatives. 

In speaking ot the resistance of our an- 
cestors to the power assumed by the British 
ministry, to tax America without giving her 
a voice in Parliament-— those who are not 
familiar with the history ot those limes — 
who have not had access to the private cor- 
respondence and diaries of the actors of 
those days, may suppose that the people 
were all of one sentiment, and were actua- 
ted by one impulse in their resistance to the 
measures of the ministry. Such, however, 
was not the case ; the diary and letters of 
John Adams, covering a period of time from 
1755. down to the latter part of 1777, show 
us how much and what constant labor was 
required to enlighten the public mind upon 
the great and vital questions then agitated, 
and what unceasing efforts were necessary 
to counteract the influence and machina- 



lions ofihe agents of the crown in this coun- 
try. 

Mr. Adams nnd oilier friends of the p'o- 
ple, were in those days frequently culled 
upon to address large meenngs, upon the 
topics ihen in controversy between the col- 
onists and the crown or its officers, and his 
able pen was in constant requisiiion, to re- 
fute the pretensions pui forth by ihem, and 
toelucidate, sustain and enforce the p inci- 
ples of liberty, lor which, he and his com- 
peers were strenuously contending. 

In his Auto-Biographv, Mr. Adam«says 
"It was I believe, in 1772 (it was in 1773) 
that Governor Hutchinson, in an elaboia e 
speech 10 t>oth Houses, endeavored to con- 
vince them. tlit ir constituents, and the wot Id. 
'.hat Parliament was our sovereign legisla- 
ture, and had a right to make laws lor us in 
all cases whatsoever, to lay taxes on all 
things external and internal, on land as 
well as on trade."— The House appointed a 
Committee to answer ihis speech, and a 
most elaborate and triumphant reply was 
drawn up by Mr. Adams, altho' he was not 
then a member ol the House, and publish- 
ed.— Mr. Adams soon after entered into a 
controversy in ihe public prints, with Gen- 
eral Brattle, one of the King's officers, upon 
subjects then in dispute be; ween the friends 
ol civil liberty, and the friends ol ihe minis- 
try— ol this controversy he afterwards r-poke 
as follows in his Auto-biography:— " The 
minds of all men were awakened and every 
thing was eagetly read by every one who 
could read. Tbese papers accordingly, 
contributed to spread correct opinions con- 
cerning the impoilance of the independence 
oi the judges to liberty, and safety." * * * 
The principles developed in these papets 
have been very generally, indeed al- 
most univer-ally, prevalent among the 
people of America trom that time." 
—These were but a small portion of the 
effusions of his pen, which were widi ly 
circulated among the people, and tended to 
give them correct notions in regard 10 rheir 
rights, and the un warrantable assumptions 
of the ciown. The same andsimilar sub- 
jects were also discussed by able minds in 
other colonies ; so that the people might be, 
if they were not thoroughly imbued wnb the 
principles of liberty. They were clearly 
and eioqui ntlv taught their rights and pri- 
vileges, — their attention was kept alive, 
and their jealous watchfulness of those 
who aimed at subjugating ihem, stimula- 
ted to the highest degree. Nevertheless 
there were two parties,- -ihe party of power 
and the Liberty party.— and it required no 
6mall degree of resolution, firmness and 
moral courage, for men in those days, to 
step torwatd, ;>nd become leaders in ihe con- 
test against the British crown, then in the 
plenitude of its power and lately victorious 
over a gr- at and gallant nation. They 
were taking what appeared tocauliou« men, 
the weaker side. They were throwing I 
* 



away their chances of official elevation, 
and the privilege of basking in the sun- 
shineof royal favor, for what, to many, 
seemed a desperate chance of effectual re- 
sistance lo usurpation. How they felt,--- 
how ihey reasoned, and how they acted, 
may be judged from the language of Mr. 
Adams, on the occasion of his preparing 
the answer of the House, before referred to, 
to Governor Hutchinson's speech. In a 
letn r to his friend Tudor, he says, "can I 
describe to you, my dear Tudor, the state 
of my mind at ihat time ? I had a wife 
and such a wife ! 1 had children — and 
what children !*♦*** 
In this situation, 1 should have thought my- 
self ihe happiest man in the world, if I 
could Pave retired to my little hut and for- 
ty acres, which my lather left me in Brain- 
tree, and lived on potatoes and seaweed 
lor the rest of my life. But I had taken a 
part, ] had adopted a system, I had encour- 
aged my lellow citizens, and I could not 
abandon them in conscience nor in honor. 
I determined herefore to set friends and 
enemies at defiance, and follow my own 
best judgment, whatever might fall there- 
on." 

Such were the feelings, and such the re- 
solution which nerved ihe leading men of 
that day, and i ore them on, through almost 
insurmountable diffi collies and discourage- 
ments, and through long years ofgloom and 
uncertainty, to the final and glorious con- 
summation of American Independence. It 
was no holiday labor ihey had to perform ; 
il was no child's play, the part they acted. 
Many who co-op rated in ihe outset, cor- 
dially and zealously with them, becoming 
either disheartened, or alarmed, or enlice- 
ed by ptomisesand rewards from those in 
power, fell t ff and joined the Tories. But 
such things neither lessened the zeal, nor 
for a moment shook the confidence of the 
stern patriots who had resolved upon liber- 
ty or death. They had screwed their cour- 
age to the sticking point, and the word 
•• fail" was notpermitied to enter their vo- 
cabulary. 

Bui there were those who were faithful to 
the cause, that were unprepared for the 
sreat step which was taken in the revolu- 
i ion, declaring the Colonies independent, 
and were even shocked at the suggestion of 
such a procedure! Will you believe it, 
fellow citizens, that when this idea first got 
out through a private letter which had been, 
intercepted, and published by order of Gen- 
eral Gage, the author was shunned, even by 
members of the Congress of '7t>, as a dan- 
gerous person! Mr. Adams was the wri- 
ter of that lett-r, and after its publication, 
he says, " I was avoided like a man having 
the leprosy. I walked the streets of Phila- 
delphia in solitude, borne down by ths 
weight of care and unpopularity." And 
this account is confirmed by Dr. Rush, who 
says, "I saw this gentleman (Mr. Adams) 



walk the streets of Philadelphia alone, af- 
ter the publication of his intercepted letter 
in our newspapers in 1775, an object of 
nearly universal scorn and detestation!" — 
Such, fellow-citizens, was the odium which 
in Philadelphia fell upon those who dared 
even to hint at independence, as late as the 
fall of 1775, some month's after the battle of 
Bunker's Hill, and after General Washing- 
ton had taken command of the American 
Army ! Am I not then borne out, in saying 
that the labor of those great men who pre- 
pared the public mind for separation fiom 
the mother country — who led the way to 
independence, and who toiled in Congress 
to sustain the Armv and the conflict in the 
long years ol a doubtful struggle, and of 
gloom v prospects, was no holiday labor — 
no drawing-room amusement! Nothing 
less than the most sacred conviction of the 
justness of their cause, the inborn love of 
liberty which belongs tofreemen, and a firm 
reliance on the goodness and justice of thai 
Providence who had ever watched over the 
destinies of North America, could have sus- 
tained and encouraged them in those times 
that literally and emphatically " tried men's 
souls." 

But they were borne up and through all 
trials, hardships, and difficulties, and had 
the satisfaction of seeing their country take 
her place among the nations of the earth, 
as their acknowledged equal. And here a 
reflection is forced upon us. John Adams 
was the first minister who represented the 
United States at the Court of St. James, 
after the peace ol"83. and the acknowledge 
ment by Great Britain ol ourindcpendence ; 
and what a contrast must there have been 
in his feelings when he stood belorc George 
the third, the proud representative jf a na- 
tion of freemen, and when he walked the 
streets of Philadelphia "an object of nearly 
universal scorn and detestation," because 
he had in a private leter dared to hint at 
independence! Amply was he then repaid 
for all the odium tha: had been attempted 
to be cast upon him for being six months in 
advance of some other members of Con- 
gress, and well night he afford to forget 
their scorn and contumely. 

Wiih the hardships, privations, and suf- 
ferings of the American Armies of the rev- 
olution, under Washington and his Gener- 
als, you are all familiar, and it is not mv 
purpose, therefore, to occupy your time 
with them. The courage, fortitude, pa- 
tience and endurance of those who fought 
and bled in defence of liberty and indepen- 
dence, have been fruitful themes for elo- 
quence, until all has been s,->id that need be 
said, though no more than justice has been 
done those brave spirits, now, alas ! nearlv 
all descended to th^ grave, which must in 
a very short time close over (he last of thai 
gallant band. Ever honored be their names 
and hallowed their memories through all 
iu'.ure ages I They set a noble exauijde to 



their posterity, and may that posterity never 
prove unworthy of such an ancestry. De- 
generate indeed must they have become, 
when they shall have forgotten Washing- 
ton and his associates and the soldiers o{ 
the Revolution— of Bunker Hill, Benning- 
ton, Saratoga, Trenton, Monmouth, Ger- 
mantown, Brandywine, Guilford, Eutaw, 
and Yortrtown ; or when these names shall 
not raise a glow of national pride, and make 
them feel that hey have noble blood cour- 
sing in their veins. 

Peace came at length, but found the coun- 
try prostrate and helpless. It had within 
it-ell ample recuperative powers, but such 
was its unhappy comli.ion that they could 
not be brought into action. It was like a 
strong man paralysed, or a powerful ma- 
chine, whose parts were not so united as to 
make a whole, and perforin the functions 
for which it was designed. 

The old Confederation, which had cost 
Congress and the Legislatures of the States 
five years of anxious labor e'er it was final- 
ly adopted by the whole thirteen, had, from 
the very first, been a weak, inefficient, im- 
practicable form of government, wholly dis- 
appointing the expectations of the majority 
of its iramers. The great error of it lay in 
the fact that it did not form the States, and 
the people of all the States, into a national 
government, but merely agglomerated them 
together as separate and independent Sover- 
eignties, and not as subordinate parts of an 
entire Natwn. I need not tell you how 
utterly powetiess it was for all those purpo- 
ses for which a national government was 
most needed, during the war, namely, to 
raise and equipartnies, and to levy taxes 
for the support of those armies. He who 
has read the numerous letters of General 
Washington, addressed to the "Continental 
Congress," imploring and beseeching that 
body to do what seemed absoluiely necessa- 
ry to preserve ev.m a semblance of an ar- 
my in the field,— and recoiled the sufferings 
both he and his brave companions were en- 
during lor the want of arms, ammunition, 
blankets, clothing, shoes and stockings ; he 
who has tracked them in their weary and 
painful march over the frozen ground to 
their retreat at Morristown or Valley Forge, 
by the blood which their lacerated feet left 
in their foot prints, will require no stronger 
evidence of the inefficiency of the old.con- 
lerieracy. For, it was not for want of a 
disposition to do so, that Congress did not 
comply with the urgent and pressing soli- 
citations of the commander-in-chief— but 
from the want of power. All that they 
could do, was to make requisitions upon the 
different States, and in some cases they 
might as well have called •spirits from the 
vasty deep," as 10 call for men and money. 
It was a slow and tedious process to raiss 
both, even had every State promptly obeyed 
the call made upon her; but unfortunately, 
the disposition to comply with these requi- 



sitions, was as often wanting, as the ability. 
Every such call must be deoated and deba- 
ted, reconsidered, postponed, and delayed in 
various ways, un.il, not unfrequenily, .he 
time had gone by, when th-y would answer 
the purpose, or meet the exigency for which 
they were rt quired, and then this fact was 
dishonorahly seized upon as an excuse for 
criminal inaction. 

Still, however, the cause of liberty and 
independence was sustained,— and it is al- 
most a miracle ihat it was,— by the ardor 
of the people and by the fortunate circum- 
stances that Congress were enabled to bor- 
row money in Fiance, Holland and Spain, 
and tofoima ireatj of alliance, offensive and 
defensive, wiih the first mentioned nation. 
who aided us with land ;ind naval forces, as 
well as money. But when the excitement, 
the pressure, and ihe danger of the war was 
removed, and the confedeiaiion was left to 
perform by itself the operations of a nation- 
al government, its weakness became still 
more apparent and palpable. What the 
condition of ihe country then was under 
this feeble government, I shall let a promi- 
nent actor in the public affairs of that event- 
ful day describe. In the 15ih number of 
•' The Ftderali-t," the joint production of 
Hamilton, Madison and Jay, the former 
uses the following language : " We may 
"indeed, wiih propriety, be said to have 
" reached almost ihe last stage of national 
" humiliation. There is scarcely anything 
" that can wound ihe pride, or degrade the 
" character, of an independent people. 
" which we do not experience. Are here 
" engagements, to ihe performance of which 
" we are held by every tie respectable among 
" men 1 These are the subjects of constant 
" and unblushing violation. Do we owe 
" debts to foreigners, and to our own citi- 
" zens, contracted in a time of imminent 
" peril, for the preservation of our political 
"existence"? These remain without any 
'• proper or satisfactory provision for iheir 
"discharge. Have we valuable territories 
■' and important posts in the possession of a 
" foreign power, which, by express siipula- 
:1 tion, ought long since to have been sur 
" rendered 1 These are still retained, to the 
,: prejudice of our interests not less than our 
" rights. Are we in a condition to reseni 
" or to repel ihe aggies ion 1 We have nei- 
" ther troops, nor treasury, nor government 
" Are we even in a condition to remonstrate 
" with dignity 1 The just imputations on 
" our own laith, in respect to ihe same trr-a- 
" ty, ought first to be removed. Are we en- 
" tilled by nature and compact, to a free par- 
ticipation in the navigation of the Mis- 
'• sissippi 1 Spain excludes us from it. Is 
"public credit an indispensable resource in 
"limeof public danger 1 We seem to have 
" abandoned its cause as desperate and ir 
" retrievable. Is commerce of importance 
" to national wealth 1 Ours is at the low- 
" est point of declension. Ts respectability 



" in the eyes of foreign powers, a «afe- 
" guard against foreign encroachments'? 
" The imbecility of our government, even 
" fornids them to treat with us : our am- 
" bassadors abroad are the mere pageants of 
'■ mimic sovereignty." 

After further remarks, in a similar strain, 
Mr. Hamilton mosi truthfully says, "The 
great and radical vice, in the construction 
of the existing confederation, is in the prin- 
ciple of " Legislation - ' for States or Go- 
vernments, in their Corporate or Col- 
lective Capacities, and as contradistin- 
guished from the Individuals ot whom 
thev consist." 

Such was the old Confederation : — Under 
it, the nation was in a state cf atrophy, — 
prostrate, helpless, and rapidly sinking into 
utter imbecility, contempt and dissolution. 
In thus condemning it, I do not presume to 
c?.st censure upon those by whom it was 
formed. Its authors and atchitects were 
wise and patriotic men, but they were strik- 
ing oui a new path; they were commencing 
a new work, and though they endeavored 
to concentrate upon it, all the rays of light 
which could be collected from the experi- 
ence of the past, which glimmered through 
the histories of Gteece and Rome, and of 
the Cantons of Switzerland and the United 
Provinces of Holland, yet, when thus col- 
lected, these cast but a dim and feeble lighl 
upon their path-— it was, in truth, 

"No light, but rather darkness visible." 

It was not to be expected that they could 
create a perfect form of government, even 
if there had been no prejudices nor jealous- 
ies to encounter. But of these there were 
many and strong. 

But when the itnpotency of the confeder- 
ation had been fully demonstrated by expe- 
rience—when ihe condition of the country 
under it was such as Mr. Hamilton, in the 
language I have quoted, described it, — the 
general cry was, what shall be done! We 
must have commerce ; we must have trade ; 
we must have credit; we must have mili- 
tary force to repel the aggressions of the 
Indians; we must pay thr» debts the nation 
contracted to carry on the war of indepen- 
dence ; we must do justice to the Officers 
and Soldiers of the revolution ; and to do 
this, we must have a more efficient govern- 
ment, a more perfect and effective Union. 

The idea of revising the articles of the 
confederation, with a view to strengthen the 
hands of the government, by giving it pow- 
er to regulate commerce, and to do other 
matters, which that instrument did not au- 
thorise them o do, was first started at Mount 
Vernon, in 1785. The Virginia Legislature 
led the way in appointing commissioners to 
meet commissioners, from oiher Slates, for 
this purpose at Annapolis. Five other States 
on ly.com pi it d with her suggestion, and sent 
commissioners or delegates, to that conven- 
tion. Upon meeting and comparing their 



8 



powers,these were found to be wholly inad- 
equate !o the task necessary to be done, to 
say nothing of the fact, that not a majority 
of the States wore represented. Tlie resub 
was that this convention only drew up and 
adopted a recommendation for the assem- 
blage of anotherconveniion at Philadelphia, 
in which all the States should be represen- 
ted with powers adequate to the accom- 
plishment of the desired reformation of the 
government. 

Thi< recommendation was comp'iedwith 
by each State, and the Convention assem- 
bled in Mav, 1767 But though this body 
comprised some of the widest, most experi- 
enced and patriotic men of the nation, 
among whom were Washington, Frank- 
lin, Shkrman, Madison, and Hamilton, it 
had undertaken no ordinary or holiday task. 
It was soon perceived that in reforming the 
old Confederation, and endeavoring to adap 
if to the exigences of the country, it mus 1 
be utterly demolished, and a new edifice 
erected in its place. To tear away from 
the very foundation, one form of govern- 
ment, and to erect another ot a uitfVreni 
form on its ruins in a peaceful manner, was 
what had never before been accomplished 
by any nation upon ihe earth. Neverthe- 
less, it wis necessary that this should be 
done, and it was done. I takes not long to 
•ay this; bu' the great wotk itself was not 
so quickly or easily dispatched. I coukt 
not adequately describe, were I to attempt 
it, the obstacles and the difficulties which 
beset the Convention on every side, and at 
every step they advanced ;— old prejudices 
and conflictir.g opinions were to be over- 
come and reconciled-- jarring and clashing 
interests wete to be harmonised. The large 
States tenacious of their power, demand, d 
that each should be represented in the Na- 
tional Legislature aeeordii g to their popu- 
lation ; while ;he small States, jealous of 
the large, tearful of being overwhelmed and 
annihilated by them, and claiming to stand 
on an equality wi.h them, as Slates, were 
unwilling 10 adopt any rule or article that 
would make them mere satelitcs of the 
large Statis. How these difficulties, after 
much discussion and anxious consultation, 
were overcome and settled, yon all know— 
the large Sates retain their ascendancy in 
the II uise ol Represen'atives, while the 
small St.ites are placed upon an equality 
with them in the Senate. This was, per- 
haps, the only possible mole in which the 
conflicting claims of the States could have 
been compromised, and a wiser one could 
not have been devised. 

Another question presented difficulties al- 
most insuperable, upon which sectional 
feelings were en isied — thai question which 
has ot late years so deeply agitated, and 
still agitates the country. But, thanks to a 
kind Providence, there was a spirit of pa- 
triotic conciliation pervading that body ol 
sages, which, guided by wisdom, overcame 



all things,— which mnde the rough placet 
smooth, laid bridges across deep chasms, 
and brought men entertaining irreconcila- 
ble opinions, io act tog ther in unity and 
concord. Mav that Divine Spirit ever per- 
vade the people of ihis land, in its whole 
length and breadih, and cause them, follow- 
ing ihe example ol their lathers, to yield 
somewhat of their opinions and prejudices, 
that peace and concotd, prosperity and hap- 
piness may cover the land as the waters cov- 
er the sea. 

The Constitution was hrough! into exist- 
ence by compromise. Had each member 
of the Convention, and each section of the 
country adhered pertinaciously and un- 
yieldingly to its own views and wishes, th« 
delegates must have separated without ac- 
complishing the glorious work which stands 
as an everlasting monument of their for- 
bearance, conciliatoiy spirit and wisdom. 
What the condition ol this countiy would 
now have been had they thus separated, 
and whai ihe contrast between what it would 
hive been, and what ii now is. I must leave 
to the imagination ot those who may reflect 
upon the subject. May our own and all 
lulure generaiions, prove itu-niselves not 
less wise, patriotic and conciliatory than 
those who leli us the inestimable legacy of 
ine Constitution and the Union. 

But, unpropitious as were, at times, the 
prospects of accomplishing the great labor 
of tunning a Constitution, and strenuous as 
had been the efforts of ido^e wise men to 
hring i heir labors io a successful result, that 
instrument was immediately assailed inthe 
mo-t furious manner, and is adoption by 
the Sta e Conven ions Bttenuon.-ly opposed. 
Fortunately, however, it had able sup- 
porters boh in the State Conventions 
called to ratily or reject it, and in 
the broader field of public discussion 
through the newspapers. The various ob- 
jections which were urged against it, were 
taken up and discussed, in a spirit of fair- 
ness and candor, and with a masterly abili- 
ty, in a series ol papeis, since co'lected to- 
gether and published under ihe title of 
' ; the Federalist." They were wrifen as 
you all know by Hamilton, Madison and 
Jay, — men, and 'specially ihe first named, 
who evinced a knowledge of, and familiari- 
ty with the great principles of government, 
and the springs ot human action ihat seem- 
ed almost intuitive. It is scarcely neces- 
sary io say, th.1t these papers exerted a 
most signal and salutary influence upon 
the public mind, by the beauty of their 
style, cogency of their reasoning, the for- 
cible manner in which ihe delects of the 
old conlederation were set lor h, and the 
clear expositions of the Constitution which 
the people were called upon to approve and 
adopt. These papers form and will con- 
tinue to lorm, lor all ages to come, a most 
lucid exposition ol that proud instrument 



which has thus far bound us together as one 
nation in the bonds of Union. 

May we not justly take pride to ourselves 
that of all those great spirits to whom we 
are indeb'ed for that Constitution under 
which our country has run a career of pros- 
perity heretofore unexampled in the hKtorv 
oi the world ; New York famished him who 
was second to no one in the comprehensive 
powers of his mind,- in the force.beauty.and 
logic of his writings, in his thorough knowl- 
edge of the principles of government, — in 
the energetic exertion of all his faculiies 
to aecomoli-h the great work of establish- 



vision aober reality. Never, in any part 
of the globe, since the earth was given to 
man for his habitation, has there been such 
astonishing changes, improvements, and in- 
crease in the physical comforts <.f man, as 
have heen witnessed in this country wiihin 
the sixty-two years that have passed away, 
since the ratification hy the people, of the 
Constitution oi thv United States. I wish 
I could say that :h*re had been a corres- 
ponding increase in the patriotic attach- 
ment of the people to the simplicity of re- 
publican institutions, and an equal im- 
the moral and religious 



provement in the mora 

character of the country; but I fear, that 

if we greatly excel our fathers in physical 

phiaandin that ol our own State, which comforts, we fall behind them in some ol 

principally through his efforts, adopted the those moral qualities which are essential to 



ing the Union, in the influence he was ena 
bled to wield in the con vention at Philadel 



Constitution, and upon the public mind 
by means of his pen. If our own Hamil- 
ton was not the principal architect ot that 
work, he was second to no one, and is en- 
titled to stand side by side wit'/, his co-labor- 
er and compeer, Mr. Madi«on. 

The jovous feelings which were exhibited 
in many parts of the country, but more 
especially in some of the large cities, by 
celebrations, processions, bonfires, &c. up- 
on the formation of the Constitution, were 
the best evidences of the depressed condition 
of the people under the confederation, and 
of iheir high hopes of a favorable change 
under the new government. Thank Heav- 
en, those Dopes have not been doomed to 
disappointment ; so far from this, they did 
not in their wildest dreams, anticipate the 
half thai has been realized by their chil- 
dren, and ^eir children's children. 

Could the genius of America then have 
taken our faihers up into an exceeding high 
mountain, and showed them the Uniied 
States as the country then was, almost 
entirely covered with boundless forests 
through which the wild beasts and the red 
man roamed undisiurhpd; and then by 
shitting the scene, exhibited the United 
States as they now are, stretching from 
ocean to ocean, and from, the St. Johns to 



form a truly and permanently great nation. 
And now, let me ask, my friends, if we 
are prepared to tear to pieces ihai Constitu- 
tion which was formed with so much labor 
and with such a patriotic surrender of prej- 
udices and sectional feelings, under whose 
protection the American people have run so 
splendid a career of national prosperity? 
Are we prepared to rend that Union asun- 
der, and scatter its fragments to the winds 
of" heaven, which our fathers made such ef- 
forts to establish 1 Are wp prepared *o con- 
demn that noble work which they looked 
upon with so much pride and exultation, 
and pronounced good ? Are we ready to 
destroy that which has caused the forests of 
the West to disappear like the mist before 
the morning sun, and the tide of population 
10 flow on. like the irresistable sweep of the 
ocean, driving before it the wilderness, the 
buffalo and the red man, and carrying with 
it industry, agriculiure and the arts, intelli- 
gence, education and religion? — that which 
has whitened every ocean and sea, and riv- 
er with our commerce, and brought the pro- 
ducts of the whole world to our doors 1 — 
that which has made us a great, a prosper- 
ous, a brave and powerful people? Look 
around you : what do you now see, stand- 
ing where you are, or upon the beautiful 



the Rio-del-Norte, covered with splendid I heights of our own city 1 Every ship and 
cities and flourishing towns,-our lakes, steamer of the thousands in view -every 
rivers and canals teeming with commerce, warehouse and dock of our own and the ad- 
our railroads running in every direction, i joining citv, every spire of the hundreds 
through vallies, over rivers, ascending | ihat point like so many fingers up to neav- 



raounlains, creeping along frightful preci- 
pices, and leaping fearful chasms; our 
boundless fields of wheat, corn, cotton and 
other productions of the earth ; the three or 
four millions ol people multiplied into 
twenty-four, among whom intelligence is 
communicated from one extremity to the 
other, not only with the speed of lightning, 
but by lightning itself, what would have 
been their wonder and amazement ! — surely 



en,— all, indeed, that goes to make up " the 
great emporium of commerce" is a monu- 
ment to the wisdom of those who formed the 
Constitution and established the Union, 
andacogentargument in favor of their faith- 
ful maimainance. Palsied be the hand that 
would touch ihe first stone of that noble ed- 
ifice to remove it from its place, and nerve- 
less the arm that is outstretched to do it 
harm ! Lei him who would destroy our 



they would have thought, that, what they reverence and attachment lor the Union, 
saw was not reality, but a vision, a dream, a 
a hallucination, conjured up by spirits 



of the air, by some Prosperoand his trickRy 
Ariel. But we, fellow citizens, find the [ 



weaken its foundations, be anathema mara- 
natha ; let him walk an object of scorn and 
detestation in our midst, and be shunned by 



10 



every good citizen as one infected with mo- j views, by each yielding some portion of his 
ral leprosy, --a loathed lump of living cor- i own, for ihe sake of that which it secures to 
ruption, whose touch is pollution, and whose him and his posterity. It was, as I have be- 



breath is pestilence 

It is not to be disguised, fellow citizens, 
that this Union his been in danger of being 
rent asunder, and that ihat danger, in som 
degree, s;i)| t-xi^ts. It is noi to be denied 
thai there are portions of.Jhe American peo- 
ple,— lew in number it is to he hoped they 
are, ---who are at this moment plotting the 
dissolution of the Union, and bent upon 
striking at least one star from that glorious 
flag which is an emblem of the bright ga- 
laxy of Slates ! We could pity their insan- 
ity and forgive their intemperate and indis- 
criminate denunciation of a large portion 
of the nation, were it not that there is so 
much wilful blindness, and personal ani- 
mosity mixed ud with that which is sheer 
prejudice and foil v. 

Nor is it to be denied that there are those 
among us, who, if they do not own hostility 
to the Union, are doing, ann persist in do- 



lore said, the result of compromise and con- 
cession, and the spirit of patriotism which 
pervaded the convention that formed it, and 
prompted the members lo mutual concession, 
or il eo u Id never h ive been firmed. As such a 
'••impact, or agrei ment. therefore, r is bind- 
ing on all, and in each and all is p;i rts. 
Ev ry section, artiele, paragraph and word 
in it. must he laiihfully and honestly ad- 
hered to, abided by, and executed by all, or 
it is a d'ad letter, good tor nothing, and 
binding on no one. This is so plain a pro- 
position, that no one in his sober senses, 
can or will deny it. It follows then, and is 
just as plain, that il the Constitution is not 
bus adhered to. abided by, and fiidifully 
executed by all, or at least enforced by the 
judicial tribunals ol the land, we shall have 
no National Government and no Union. 

What is it, fellow citiz j ns, that makes us, 
one and all, proud ol the name of Ameri- 



wha; they know must bring about its cans 9 Is it not because we are conscious 
destruction. Some of them, I believe, even that we constitute a part of a great and 
go so far as to avow their hatred to it, and powerful nation 1 U it not because we 
proclaim their desire to see the Const itu ion Know that that nation is enterprising, pros- 
committed to the (limes! They certainly perous, and increasing in numbers and 
do all in their power, laboring day and nighi, wealth with unexampled rapidity 1 Is it 
to scatter the firebrands of discoid and con- not because we are aware, that we are re- 
fusion among us. It is to these fanatics, spected by the whole civilized world 1 Is it 



who have been lor years endeavoring to 
provoke the South to commit some deed ol 
rashness which would serve as an excuse 
for agitation on their part, and as a justifi- 
cation for their own incendiary acts, that 
we are mainly indebted lor that state of 
things which has endangered the stability 
ol the Union, and justly caused such serious 
alarm. It is this class of men. who, disre- 
garding the provisions ol the Constitution 
and the laws made in pursuance thereof, 
even when they have solemnly sworn to 
support it, proless to be bound by some 
" higher law " than that which is the high- 
est known to the judicial tribunals of the 
land ! What " higher law " can there be. 
fellow. citizens, than the Constitution 1 Is 
it conscience ? If so, and every man is bound 
to obey his own, then no one is bound to 
obey any other, and every one is a law unto 
himself; in other words, he may do just as 
he pleases, or, as he may please to say, It is 
conscience directs him — which is no more 
nor less than anarchy or. lawlessness — a 
state of things which all sensible men must 
admit to be worse than a despotism, and all 
good men deplore. 

But I will not occupy your time in expo- 
sing an absurdity which is too palpable to 
impose upon any one who has not lost his 
senses in the noise and confusion of fanati- 
cism. None but a fanatic could serTBU.sJy 



them, is but to reason with the inmatea.jdt'' 
the Asylum for the insane. 

The Constitution is a compact agreed up 



not because we know that we enjoy a great- 
er amount of freedom, and exercise indivi- 
dually, a greater agency in making and ad- 
ministering the laws under which we live, 
than any other people 1 Certainly. There 
is not an American who plants his loot upon 
European soil, but feels proud of his coun- 
try, and wallcs with his head as high 
as if he were a duke, earl, or baron. — 
But what would be his feelings, if 
one of Collins' fast s' arm rs, should 
bring the news to him, in London, or where- 
ever else, on that side of the water it might 
reach him, that a number of the States had 

d;— that the Union was broken up, 
and that the "United States" no longer 
existed as a natron 1 What, in that case 
must be his sensations 1 Would he not 
drop his arms, hang his head, and shed bit- 
ter tears of mortification and sorrow 1 — 
Would he not desire to flee from the faces 
of men, to some secluded spot where he 
could hide his shame, and mourn over that 
country, of which he was but yesterday so 
proud, now struck out ol existence through 
the insane infatuation of fanatics and disuni- 
on istsl My friends, il we would not turn 
this "fancy sketch" into sad reality, we 
must, one and all, do our duty a«> Americar!**- 
citizens. II we have rights under the Con- 
stitujpjj, so have others; and we must re- 

"ihat rights and duties are recipro- 



put lorth such a notion, and to reason '^th/i&yfy&f AlLmter into a discussion of the 

' "^ias so agitated, and still agi- 

try; but this I will say, that, 

if we expect others to abide by and sustain 



»n by niin having different and conflicting I the Constitution, we must not fail in fulfil. 



11 



Hig every obligation that it imposes upon us. 
The question of Slavery is one which was 
settled by those who made the Constitution, 
— it is a local, a State question, with which 
in other States we have nothing to do, and 
with which we have no right to meddle.— 
But the Constitution imposes upon us the 
obligation to return to their owners, such 
slaves as flee from them to us; we have 
agreed to do so; it is a part of the compact 
— it is in the bond, and we cannot refuse to 
doit without violating the compact, and 
acting in bad faith. And, moreover, if we 
do not do it, we have no right to call upon 
those to whom we show such bad faith, to 
perform their part of the compact. 

There is another duty incumbent upon 
us, that is also essential to the preservation, 
peace, and harmony of the Union ; and that 
is, to act the part of good neighbors to our 
brethren of the South, and not to annoy them 
with our ill-natured and censorious remarks 
upon matters which concern them and not 
us, and about which we are not as wise, 
perhaps, as we may think ourselves. We 
all know the disturbance which a censori- 
ous, carping, meddlesome person keeps up 
in his neighborhood, and how he raises the 
hostility of others against him. And so it is 
in a nation. No section oi the country can, 
will or ought to bear, peaceably and sub- 
missively, the continued railing and cen- 
sure of other sections; nor have the latter 
any right to set themselves up in judgment 
upon their actions, customs or institutions, 
enter a verdict against them, and proclaim 
that verdict to the whole world. No peo- 
ple having a proper degree of self respect, 
•will permit this, and a proud people, like 
our Southern brethren, will certainly resist 
and resent it. 

Thai the South has been thus annoyed 
lor years, by the constant intermeddling 
with their concerns, and the unceasing use 
of provoking language, by a portion of the 
people at the North, is a fact too notorious 
to be denied, nor can we censure them for 
resenting it, though we must those who 
•would, for this reason lay violent hands 
upon the Union. 

And now, what is the remedy for the evils 
which threaten the integrity of the Union, 
and what are our duties as good citizens 
and Americans 1 The remedy is in faith- 
fully adhering to, and carrying out every 
requirement of the Constitution, and the 
execution of all and every law enacted by 
Congress, and especially those Compromise 
laws, one and all, entitled " the adjustment 
measures," — for if these are not faithfully 
observed and executed, no one having; seen 
what it has been my lot to see within the 
last i wo years, and who is not utterly inca- 
pable of judging of coming events by the 
shadows they cast before,-7can "for a mo- 
ment doubt that lb", secession of the en- 
tire South, and the formation of a Southern 
Confederacy, would be the consequence. 
Our duties, then, are plain and palpable,— 



listen to them from the lips of Washingim?* 
himself, who speaks to us as a father in his 
ever memorable Farewell Address: — " It is 
of infinite moment that you should proper- 
ly estimate the immense value of your na- 
tional union to your collective and individu- 
al happiness — that you should cherish a cor- 
dial, habitual and immoveable attachment 
to it, accustoming yourselves to think and 
speak of it as the palladium of your politi- 
cal safety and prosperity — watching for 
its preservation with jealous anxiety— dis- 
countenancing whatever may suggest a sus- 
picion that it can, in any event, be aban- 
doned, and indignantly frowning upon the 
first dawning of every attempt to alienate 
any portion of our country from the rest, 
or enfeeble the sacred ties which now link 
together the various parts." These are 
the words of wisdom ; they are words ut- 
tered from the tomb ; let us take heed that 
we obey their solemn injunctions. And my 
friends, while we "cherish a cordial, ha- 
bitual, and immoveable attachment to the 
Union," we must also cherish and cultivate 
a cordial respect, and kindly, fratemal feel- 
ing for our brother Americans to whatever 
section of the Union they may belong. We 
must indulge in no jealousies, no prejudi- 
ces, no heart-burnings towards any one, and 
especially of a sectional character. " The 
name of American which belongs to you in 
your national capacity" says the same war- 
ning voice of Washington, " must always 
exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than 
any appellation derived from local discrim- 
inations." Without this respect and kind- 
ly feeling mutually maintained and cher» 
ished bv Americans, — there may be a union 
of the Stales, but there cannot be a ordial 
sympathy and brotherly union among; the 
people, and they will be like man and wife, 
when all love has fled, bound together by 
the bonds, — no longer silken bonds, — of ma- 
trimony, but becoming more and more 
averse to each other, and more and more 
restive under the restraints which those 
bonds impose. 

Our country, fellow citizens, has seen 
many dark days and trying crisis; but 
through the goodness of an All-wise Provi- 
dence, she has thus far passed safely through 
them, and like a gallant vessel escaping 
from the breakers, and spreading her canvas 
to the favoring breeze, has bounded on in 
her great and prosperous voyage. Let us 
fondly hope that we may escape the crisis 
through which we have been and are now 
passing, as lortunately and happily as 
others have been, and that our good ship, 
guided and managed by able and experi- 
enced pilots, laden as she is, wtth the best 
hopes of man, and having the anxious eyes 
of every lriend of republican government, 
and of human liberty turned upon her, may 
come out unscathed from this and every 
peril, and prove herself to be staunch and 
good, and all that her skilful builders dared 
to hope she would be, 



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